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Planning a Social Media Action

You’re on social media and now it’s time to take your digital organizing to the next level by coordinating an online action.

Your online action should build on your campaign and boost your on-the-ground organizing. Make sure you’re choosing an action that will help your group meet your campaign goals and build your power to win, just like you would in all of your organizing.

Core Elements of Planning Your Online Action

• Have a goal and a plan. Treat an online action the same way you’d treat any action by having a goal and a plan to meet it that includes recruitment, preparation, and any other goals like media attention or putting pressure on your target.
• Recruit your top supporters. Define roles for your supporters and ask people ahead of time to participate. Identify people who have influence on social media and recruit them to play a role.
• Activate your base. Plan outreach to your base to be sure they participate. Send an email out asking your base to like, share, or comment on your posts, or create their own posts, depending on the design of your action. Don’t just hope people participate—ask them to be a part of it.
• Make it easy to take action. People are more likely to take action online if you provide a sample post that they can copy and paste. Create a social media guide (example) for your action so people have all the information they need to be sure they’re tagging the right target, using the right hashtag, and staying on message.
• Prep your content ahead of time. Good content takes time. Prep your posts, images, and any other content you need in advance so that you’re ready to go day-of and have extra content to share.

Online Organizing Actions and Tactics

Here are some examples of social media actions and tactics you could use in your campaign.

Photo Campaigns

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, or Any Social Media
Type: Online Action
A photo campaign is when many individual people post photos on one theme towards one goal. It’s also a good way to show many people supporting one goal and allows people to share their individual reasons for supporting.

Twitterstorm

Social Media: Twitter
Type: Online Action
A Twitterstorm is a coordinated online action where many people tweet from many individual accounts about the same subject at the same time, using the same hashtag (a word or phrase preceded by a hash sign, like #ClimateActionNow). A Twitterstorm could be linked to a major action, like a march, rally or lobby day, where a speaker could ask the crowd to tweet using a hashtag. This can boost your event on social media and get the attention of people who aren’t there in person, including reporters. But a Twitterstorm doesn’t have to be linked to an on-the-ground action. You can coordinate a Twitterstorm to get the attention of the press, respond to a major event, boost your message, or to meet any number of goals.

Hijacking a hashtag

Social Media: Twitter
Type: Online Action
Hijacking a hashtag is an online action that requires you to identify an opportunity and take advantage of it. This action refers to taking over a hashtag that’s already being used by coordinating a group of people to tweet, using that hashtag, with your own message. For example, you could hijack a hashtag for an event where your target will be to get their attention. Hijacking a hashtag gets your message in front of a targeted group of people who are following that hashtag. This is often very hard to do and requires coordinating a lot of people at the same time, but if done right can be effective in getting the right people to pay attention.

Livetweeting

Social Media: Twitter
Type: Online Tactic Coordinated with On-The-Ground Organizing
Livetweeting refers to tweeting what’s happening at a rally, hearing, or any event in real time. Livetweeting is a powerful way for you to connect with other people who are tweeting from that event, keep people (including reporters) who aren’t at the event up to date, and share your commentary about what’s happening so you can keep your message at the forefront of the online conversation. If you’re coordinating an action that includes livetweeting, make sure you tell everyone what hashtag they should use ahead of time. Even just 2-3 people livetweeting can make an impact, especially if you let reporters know that you’ll be tweeting.

When the Baker Administration sought to use subsidies meant for renewable energy to support biomass and trash incinerators like the one proposed in Springfield, we partnered with Arise for Social Justice to bring people together to speak out against the proposal. The message was that biomass incineration—which can mean burning wood and other natural products—would only exacerbate asthma by making the air quality worse, so together we came up with the hashtag #WeBreatheWhatTheyBurn to highlight air pollution at the public hearing.

Live Video

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter
Type: Online Tactic Coordinated with On-The-Ground Organizing
Live video is a powerful way to get the attention of your supporters. Social media algorithms favor video, and especially live video, and people like to watch video, too. Going live is also a good way to broadcast an event or action for people, including reporters, who can’t make it in person. Some examples of when to do live video are at a press conference or at a protest or any other action. See tips on live video.

Events

Social Media: Facebook
Type: Online Tactic Coordinated with On-The-Ground Organizing
On Facebook, creating an event is a good way to recruit for your event or action and communicate to people who are attending. Make sure you invite all your friends, ask your group members to invite their friends, and post in the event page in the weeks leading up to the event to remind people to attend. It’s also a good way for people interested in attending to ask questions, and will get your event in front of more people on Facebook.

Tagging Decision Makers

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, or Any Social Media
Type: Tactic for Online Organizing
When you tag a decision maker on social media, they get a notification. When a lot of people tag them, they get a lot of notifications. Tagging a decision maker is a great way to get their attention. Tag them when you post photos of actions so they can see the power behind your group, or when you post press that could pressure them to make the right decision. Or, organize your supporters to tag them in a coordinated action so they can’t miss your message. Tagging decision makers can be positive, too. The Mass Power Forward coalition held an action one Valentine’s Day to share the love for legislators who were supporting bills for clean, renewable energy and environmental justice by bringing these key legislators heart-shaped thank you cards, taking a photo with them, posting the photos on social media and tagging them.

Ads

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, or Any Social Media
Type: Tactic for Online Organizing
Ads can be used in many ways—to get more followers on your page, to get people to sign your petition, to make sure more people see an important post, or to share your message with people who aren’t already following you. You can select who you want to target—whether it’s people in town or people interested in your issue—and gear your message to them. Ads cost money, and the range can vary significantly depending on who you are trying to reach. You’ll also need to create a Business Manager account on Facebook and get verified to be able to run ads. But if you have a clear goal and plan, this can be a powerful tool to find new supporters, share your message, and pressure targets.

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